Exodus Of The NBA

What are the implications of more NBA stars heading overseas?

With the NBA entering 132 days of the lockout, more and more players are looking to play the 2011-2012 season overseas. One of the early trendsetters in this whole exodus is Deron Williams who traded in his New Jerseys Nets jersey to play in Turkey during the lockout.

Initially, players seemed hesitant to go overseas and potentially void their NBA contracts, but with the lockout dragging out and the entire season in jeopardy, a number of prominent NBA stars have jumped ship.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the bigger names in basketball and what their doing with their time off during this lockout. This list is actually about 35 players deep, but here are some of the highlights.

Tony Parker (Spurs) – France

J.R. Smith (Denver) – China

Ty Lawson (Denver) – Lithuania

Kirilenko (Jazz) _ Russia

Leandro Barbosa (Raptors) – Brazil

Now, here’s a list of those currently shopping to find a team abroad to play on. As you can see, the exodus of marque players in the NBA to overseas is on. What the long-term consequences are of this we will have to wait to see. On the up side, maybe it’ll make basketball into an even more global game. On the down side, maybe the entire world will learn to dislike the NBA as much as American basketball fans do now.